Tag: nrkbeta

At earlier points in time, I have mentioned that I follow NRKbeta, NRK‘s sandbox for technology and new media. Today, I simply want to quote something they wrote a long time ago, which has been coined as the NRKbeta doctrine:

For anyone who has been following this blog since I started it, it should come as no surprise to learn that I have had long periods of not posting. I was simply not motivated to write, and even though I kept jotting down ideas for posts, they just never made it onto the blog. That all changed in the end of May, when one of the Norwegian tech blogs I follow posted an entry called “Bare skriv!” or “Just write!” in English. It tells the story about Brad Isaacs, who met Jerry Seinfeld, and asked him to give a pointer or two to a young, struggling comedian.

According to the story, Jerry Seinfeld responded that, in order to become a better comedian, you need to write better jokes. In order to write better jokes, you need to write every day. He then told Isaacs about a method he used to motivate himself. He would get a big wall calendar that had the whole year on it, and for every day that he wrote, he got to mark the day with a big red X.

Yesterday, Apple announced the long-anticipated, much hyped iPad. Looking like an overgrown iPhone, it sports a 9.7″ screen, with a resolution of 1024×768, multi-touch and your choice of WLAN (all models) 3G (some models) and 16, 32 or 64 GB memory.

A commenter at NRK Beta said it was disappointing that it didn’t have some sort of eInk technology. Now, while eInk is GREAT for reading comfort and battery time, it has a deadly flaw for a device like the iPad; it has a screen refresh rate on par with, well a book (never mind the fact that eInk is so far only available as black and wh … err … gray).

To me, the iPad is NOT ideal for reading, for the exact same reasons why a device with eInk is; backlight and screen refresh. The backlight and screen refresh makes your eyes go tired much quicker, and, eInk having neither, it is actually like reading off darkish paper.

The book function being less than interesting to me, my interest, which, I admit, is piqued, is fading. As a websurfing device, well, it just doesn’t fo it for me. If I want an instant-on, touch screen device, I’ll use my phone. If I want to seriously surf the web, I want a computer, complete with a mouse and a keyboard.

Playing music? Sure, I could, but why not use an iPod or a Creative Zen; they’re smaller and have better power usage times. As for reading and editing documents, I’d rather have a computer to edit and either paper or eInk to read, so that’s out. Photo viewing and editing? Again, I want a computer.

The iPad

The form factor looks good, but I am still critical of both the weight and how long the battery will last. I notice that, like the iPod and iPhone, the iPad does not look like you can exchange the battery yourself, which I find a curious choice. Sure, for a tiny unit like the shuffle, I can understand it, but for an everyday usage unit like the iPhone? I don’t get it.

Using iPhone OS is an obvious, albeit exciting choice. Apple are basically saying that the iPhone OS is mature enough and powerful enough to be used on this kind of device. Also, by all accounts, it does exactly what an OS for a device like this should do; IT JUST WORKS.

While the tech geek in me goes “OOOH! SHINY!”, the sensible guy sitting somewhere deep down, right next door to the justification department, is going “Meh. Yet another device I have no use for.” And that, really, is what it all boils down to, isn’t it? The answer to the question “Do I have any real use for this?”

When all’s told, my interest is piqued, but I am not convinced, and I doubt that I will shell out the $499-$699 for one of these units. There are three main reasons for this: